Archive for May, 2011

Back before Christmas we posted a poll to decide which miniatures we should paint for our Dad v Son paint to the death competition. As a fine example of democracy in action we decided to generally ignore the result, which was for us to paint zombie clowns, and do something vaguely similar instead Now this might seem arrogant, but we couldn’t find the pair of zombie clowns plus we saw the new Fenris Games tank zombies. Now we didn’t have any tank zombies, but since playing the Left for Dead games on Xbox we had come to loathe them so what a perfect opportunity to get a couple for both this competition but also for the games table.

This is a relatively simple, if time consuming, way to make vines or creepers for your models. It’s also scale-less – as it can be used for most scales. I use embroidery thread as pictured above. It works well because it’s got plenty of interwoven threads to it and can be bought in whichever base colour you might desire. I’ve picked brown because that’s the colour I want, if you were playing space games you might pick purple or lime green, or for twisted tales of horror use red to suggest veins. Hack off a lump of your thread and bunch it up to the maximum thickness you want.

Attach it to a stick or rod, twist the end of it and add a little superglue to the twisted piece. Hold until fixed and it looks a bit like the picture above.

Once dried snip it off the stick and tease it out a little. If you collect Barbies or Action Men you might want to stop at this stage as you’ve just made yourself a handy cat o’ nine tails. A great way to meet a doll of the opposite sex.

Then twist out branches and glue those wait for them to dry and then twist out some more, glue, dry, etc. Don’t feel the need to glue every molecule of the thread. For me it works well if you just glue the junctions. Even if you do use too much glue don’t panic as you can still bend it to fit whatever shape you end up fixing it to.

And that’s the basic technique which you just keep on with until you reach the end og the threads. I try to cut the threads different lengths to reflect how most plants don’t have roots or branches of equal length. Eventually you’ll be moving with some speed doing this as well as sussing just how long you need to hold the string until the glue is dry enough to let go and get on with the next piece.

Eventually you’ll end up with something which looks like plasticated veins created by an insane and sinister German doctor. Bear in mind you can add more pieces to it when placing it, especially for the thinner pieces. To see what it looks like in place have a look at this.

Another of the coaster scenics is finished so three cheers for me. This one features a Buddha head from one of those out of town retail bunkers identical to the one Mike Awdry picked up to do similar with.

The stonework is made from pink foam, the vine from embroidery thread, the bamboo from satay sticks and the ivy from one of those over priced Army Painter boxes. A bit of spagnum moss has been jammed into crevices and a bit of a couple of types of flock scattered around. The most complex piece being the creeping vine, and a how-to for this can be read right here.

This will only take a couple of, or three at a push, figures and quite snugly too. You can see one of my great Pulp Figure Sikhs keeping watch in these pictures, handily justifying my colour scheme for the blighters.

The other coaster scenics can be seen here, and here. There’s at least one more of these to come, so keep ’em peeled game chums.

For our recent adventures in the jungle it was obvious we’d need some foliage, and this year I’d decided to get more scenics and fewer figures. This as part of an effort to minimise the lead hill but also to round out the collection having noticed how some of the best looking games aren’t all about the figures. The other fun aspect to scenics is finding things you can use across projects, so these are great for WW2 jungle, North Africa plus our modern adventures in Jihadistan. Of course spending too much time on the interweb I knew of a place to get brilliant trees from, namely Ebob’s forthcoming new range for Viet Nam – Recon28.

Now the range has been released yet, so I had to wrangle some pre-release models from the man Bob himself. It was worth the effort as these trees are quite stunning, and match rather neatly the pace at which gaming is getting better. The trunks are real wood, the fronds are plastic, theres some coir and even coconuts on many of them. They come with wire spikes so are suitable for game boards too. The two above are based on my cheapskate bases, made from four tuppenny pieces which therefore cost only eight pence.

This one is based on a washer which cost over twenty of the Queen’s new pennies, I wouldn’t mind so much but she wasn’t paying for them. However the trees remain divine and I’d suggest of you want some to pre-order them now because otherwise I’ll buy them all.

Here’s the latest of my scenics built on a coaster. Now last time I posted one of these and mentioned it on the forums there was some small confusion over what a coaster actually was. It’s like a place mat for a plate but for a cup or glass, it’s a heavy version of a beer mat, and it looks like these. That fascinating subject address onward with the important bit – the bit about toys!A while back I was granted entrance to the Fenris Games tiny bag of miscasts, and seeing a pair of these grabbed them, ran from the building and haven’t been back since. The boy slug grabbed one leaving me with the other but we both had the same bright idea i.e. “What a wonderful opportunity for a wrecked Humvee.”. So I took it, a coaster, one section of the Fenris damaged Jersey barrier set and started work.

First I cut a piece of plasticard the shape and size of the coaster, having finished the piece I wish I’d filled the edges as the lip on this is the only bit I don’t like, and them cut a hole in it with some dramatic cracks rippling out from it, stuck it on the coaster having dug out the hole a little and them worked on it a bit with some green stuff. Bish on the lonely wheel, bosh on the barrier, and bash on the painted Humvee.

The bullet holes are drilled but the shattered windscreen is painted, a few additional pieces of debris scattered around and the piece is ready rather quickly. The figures are TAG SWAT but with a little modding with greenstuff. I would link to them but they can’t be arsed to answer my email so I can’t be arsed to link to the slackers.

The tyre was drilled out to look like that, with a tiny piece of greenstuff added, although I could have got away with just the holes.

In the end a lovely little barricade for folk to shelter behind… I feel a visit to Jihadistan is on the horizon.

This is one of those very typical foliage-on-a-cd things which is almost compulsory for every gamer to make. This one isn’t much different other than I’ve upped my game between making the first one and this one. So I’ve got the CD and added the aquatic plants. Don’t make the mistake of buying the Uber expensive ones from big retail warehouses use Products for Wargamers instead who are much more reasonable.

Now these plastic plants come on a larger mat, and are attached with a simple peg & hole arrangement. This makes basing madly simple – cut the base off the main mat, gently remove the plants and all you have to glue to the base is the freestanding peg, glues, paints and flocks can be applied and dried and you can reattach the plant afterward. Much easier than with your usual model tree.

For me this is the finishing touch which I quite literally stumbled upon during a game at Wobbly Steves. It’s spagnum moss aand his lawn is riddled with it and very conveniently so. Very easy to use and completely free – Hurrah!